Sports of The Times; A Standout's Chance To Be Outstanding

By GEORGE VECSEY

Published: April 29, 1994

THE first thing you notice about Craig MacTavish on the ice is the shaggy brown curls, gliding amid all the shiny helmets, Clint Eastwood in a latter-day western called "The Last of the Bare Heads."

The next thing you notice about Craig MacTavish in a hockey game is the utter discipline. He does not make a move he does not mean, which allows him, at the age of 35, to play both ends of the rink. There have been recent years in the Ancient Mariner saga of the Rangers when there was no one person who was experienced and big and unselfish and talented and a trifle mean, all at the same time.

When Neil Smith, the general manager, made his flurry of trades at the end of March, some of us detected a sign of desperation. But the Rangers demolished the Islanders in the first round and they are favored against Washington when the second round opens Sunday night. MacTavish's steady play has reminded me of the watershed year of 1969, when the Mets traded for a wise, old head named Donn Clendenon. Members of the Whatever Generation who don't know (or care) about Watergate probably also don't know the Mets won the World Series in 1969.

The first thing you notice about Craig MacTavish in the clubhouse is his vocabulary. I have underlined "frustrating" and "tedious" and "fruition" and "alleviate" and "intimidated" and "attrition" and "amusing" and "attributes," all of them used appropriately, and not self-consciously. He majored in business for two years at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell when he played for the Boston Bruins.

The first thing you notice about Craig MacTavish in the hockey directory is the notation, "Did Not Play," for 1984-85. He spent that season in the Lawrence (Mass.) Correctional Alternative Center, after pleading guilty to driving while under the influence of alcohol and vehicular homicide because a young woman died when his car struck hers late one night.

MacTavish spent part of that year warning young people about drinking and driving, and on the day he was released he said: "It's not over and it's not behind me. So many things remind me of what happened in my terrible mistake, in my fatal mistake."

He never criticized the Bruins for releasing him after his year away, but he preferred to praise the Edmonton Oilers, who gave him a chance. He helped them earn three Stanley Cups, and ultimately he followed Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier in wearing the captain's "C" on his jersey.

"He's been through a lot in his lifetime," said Glenn Anderson, another of the former Oilers brought together for this bizarre class reunion. "He appreciates this. He realizes you can't play the game forever."

Last year, MacTavish outlasted the Marshes and the Carlyles and the Langways and all the old salts who had been grandfathered in for permission to play without a helmet. He said he never thought of the distinction of being the last bare head, it just happened.

"When I played in Boston, the Bruins were the last frontier for no helmets," MacTavish said the other day. "I kind of got used to it. I never thought about being the last one. I've been fortunate to not get hurt, I guess."

With the Oilers falling out of the playoffs this season, Glen Sather, the combative Edmonton general manager and a former Ranger, asked MacTavish if he would be interested in a trade to New York. MacTavish knew his contract and his time were up. He jumped at the chance to play with so many of his former teammates on this very deep team.

"In Edmonton, Craig was a calming influence," Messier said. "Every time I talked to somebody in Edmonton, they said he was playing the best hockey of his career."

MacTavish had never thought much about the Rangers' 1940! 1940! business, but he is beginning to understand what winning a Stanley Cup could unleash in this metropolis. He knew the demands of New York, that people would ask about the year away, but he has never talked much about his past and he declined to break his code yesterday.

Asked if his tragic history gives him extra incentive, MacTavish said: "Could be. I feel very fortunate to be a professional athlete at this time."

Asked how he felt coming to the Rangers, MacTavish said: "It's very special for me. I've got so much to look forward to. I could very easily be done right now."

He was talking about this season, about the here and now, but I had the distinct impression that Craig MacTavish, with those Eastwood wrinkles and the adult vocabulary and the purposeful hockey game, knew he was also talking about something bigger. He gave me the feeling that he understood not everybody gets a second chance, and that he was grateful, and is making the most of it.